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Sorbus frutescens; photograph Trond Sørhuus, CC BY, via GBIF CC BYTrond Sørhuus, CC BY, via GBIF

Sorbus frutescens McAll.

Rosaceae · China North-Central

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Sorbus frutescens McAll.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Mc All.

No habitat climate
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Sorbus frutescens, photograph Theodor Korsgaard, CC BY, via GBIFSorbus frutescens, photograph Theodor Korsgaard, CC BY, via GBIFSorbus frutescens, photograph Jan Alsvik, CC BY, via GBIFSorbus frutescens, photograph Jan Alsvik, CC BY, via GBIFSorbus frutescens, photograph Rune Zakariassen, CC BY, via GBIFSorbus frutescens, photograph Rune Zakariassen, CC BY, via GBIF 24 photographs ›

Summary

Sorbus frutescens is a species of rowan native to Gansu province of China. Often mistakenly lumped in with Sorbus koehneana, it is a very small tree reaching only 2 m (6 ft 7 in) at maturity, with white fruit against dark green pinnate leaves which turn shades of red and bronze in autumn.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Sorbus frutescens", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Sorbus

Sorbus is a genus of over 100 species of trees and shrubs in the rose family, Rosaceae. Species of Sorbus (s.str.) are commonly known as rowan or mountain-ash. The genus used to include species commonly known as whitebeam, chequer tree and service tree that are now classified in other genera. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Sorbus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Nothing derived: no habitat climate for this species.

Climate across the habitat

No habitat climate can be derived: No georeferenced record inside the range.

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP.
No openly licensed record to show inside the range.
NativeChina North-Central · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedNo georeferenced record lies inside the stated native range, and all 43 georeferenced records read lie outside it: the range and the records disagree. They are not used, and no map marker or climate is derived from them.

Photographs

Sorbus frutescens, photograph 1did not loadSorbus frutescens, photograph 2did not loadSorbus frutescens, photograph 3did not loadSorbus frutescens, photograph 4did not loadSorbus frutescens, photograph 5did not loadSorbus frutescens, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Theodor Korsgaard, CC BY, via GBIF (2); Jan Alsvik, CC BY, via GBIF (2); Rune Zakariassen, CC BY, via GBIF (2).

Other Sorbus 56 in the reference

Sorbus americana Sorbus americana American mountain-ash Photo: CC0, author not statedSorbus aucuparia Sorbus aucuparia Rowan Photo: CC BY, Chris Fluit Sorbus bissetii Rosaceae Sorbus californica Sorbus californica California mountain-ash Photo: CC BY, DenaSorbus cashmiriana Sorbus cashmiriana Kashmir Rowan Photo: CC BY-SA, AcabashiSorbus commixta Sorbus commixta Japanese rowan Photo: CC BY, Yoshihiro TokueSorbus decora Sorbus decora Northern mountain-ash Photo: CC BY, Eric LambSorbus discolor Sorbus discolor Rosaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, SalicynaSorbus eburnea Sorbus eburnea Rosaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz Sorbus fansipanensis Rosaceae Sorbus filipes Sorbus filipes Rosaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Averater Sorbus foliolosa Rosaceae all 57 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Pyrus frutescens. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Rosaceae
Described by
McAll.
Native to
China North-Central
Wild records
none in range · 43 outside it

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF's key 10502508 is Sorbus frutescens Mc All.; the page links Kew's Sorbus frutescens McAll., and the name is cited as Kew cites it
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 6 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (5 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22no georeferenced record inside the range
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by its label; its IPNI identifier 77069164-1 is Kew's for Sorbus frutescens McAll.
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 5 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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